Is This Bike Lane Infringing on Religious Freedoms?

DC has long ranked as one of our best cities for cycling, largely due to the city’s vast network of multi-use paths and bike lanes. But not everyone in the capital is enjoying expanded access to safer cycling—a church on 6th and M Streets, NW, has taken issue with a new protected bike lane, saying it infringes on its congregants’ religious rights by blocking their access to parking near the building.

The United House of Prayer sent a letter to DC’s transportation department director Leif A. Dormsjo that clarifies the evangelical Christian church’s position and urges the city to reconsider alternate plans for bike lane placement.

“Any plan by DDOT to eliminate all 6th and M Street parking by installing a bicycle lane/track along those thoroughfares would represent a substantial and egregious encroachment on United House of Prayer’s rights,” the letter argues, referring to the dwindling parking near the building that would be affected by the lanes.

For those of you who pedal to your chosen house of worship—or for those who consider a Sunday bike ride the closest you get to a higher power—the solution might seem obvious: Get more of the House of Prayer’s members on bikes. But that doesn’t appear to be an option for most of the church’s 800 parishioners, many of whom commute from outside the neighborhood for services and church events, as the letter clarifies.

This isn’t the first time organized religion has clashed with bike infrastructure —though the “cyclists are riding over our ‘religious freedoms’ angle” is certainly a new one. In 2013 another crosstown bike lane in DC clashed with the local Metropolitan AME over potential parking infringement—and the church managed to get the bike lane downgraded from a protected lane to a standard painted stripe. New Yorkers will probably also remember the great Brooklyn bike lane wars of late ‘09, when the Department of Transportation announced plans to remove a 14-block stretch of the bike lane along Bedford Avenue in response to the complaints of the local Hasidic community, who reportedly objected to scantily clad female cyclists.

In both those cases, bike advocacy groups were left dissatisfied by the outcomes. But according to the United House of Prayer’s letter, they think an alternate plan will be a win-win situation for all parties.

“As you know, bicycles have freely and safely traversed the District of Columbia throughout the 90-year history of the United House of Prayer, without any protected bicycle lanes and without infringing in the least on the United House of Prayer’s religion rights. More importantly, as discussed at various points with DDOT, there is another alternative that would simply entail altering the proposed bike lane’s route by one block, such that the bike tracks would follow 6th Street to N Street for the block or two needed to avoid impacting adversely on any parking adjacent to God’s White House on 6th and M Streets.”

“DDOT’s parking restrictions violate, inter alia, the United House of Prayer’s rights of religious expression under the First Amendment. The bicycle lane/track will place a very substantial burden on members’ ability to attend worship services, which are, of course, central to United House of Prayer’s faith and mission. Nor is there any compelling government interest in the currently-proposed route for the bicycle lane/track, given that the United House of Prayer would be irreparably and adversely impacted by any of DDOT’s present proposals. Further, the three 6th Street design options are far from the least restrictive alternative; as Mr. Buck has already acknowledged, DDOT has an alternative, viable design option –the 9th Street Eastside option.”

DDOT has yet to come to a decision about how they’ll approach the proposed bike lanes, but the Washington Post reports that an open house will be held on October 22 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Shaw Library, 1630 Seventh Street NW.

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